Wind Energy

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Ancient Resource Meets 21st Century

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Wind Turbines
Power for a House or City

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Wind Energy Outline
 History and Context
 Advantages
 Design
 Disadvantages
 Economics
 Project Development
 Policy
 Future

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History and Context

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Wind Energy History
 1 A.D.
 Hero of Alexandria uses a wind machine to power an organ
 ~ 400 A.D.
 Wind driven Buddhist prayer wheels
 1200 to 1850
 Golden era of windmills in western Europe – 50,000
 9,000 in Holland; 10,000 in England; 18,000 in Germany
 1850’s
 Multiblade turbines for water pumping made and marketed in U.S.
 1882
 Thomas Edison commissions first commercial electric generating stations in
NYC and London
 1900
 Competition from alternative energy sources reduces windmill population
to fewer than 10,000
 1850 – 1930
 Heyday of the small multiblade turbines in the US midwast
 As many as 6,000,000 units installed
 1936+
 US Rural Electrification Administration extends the grid to most formerly
isolated rural sites
 Grid electricity rapidly displaces multiblade turbine uses
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Increasingly Significant Power Source

coal
petroleum
coal
petroleum
Wind could
natural gas
nuclear
natural gas
nuclear
generate 6%
hydro
other renewables
hydro
other renewables
of nation’s
wind wind
electricity by
2020.
Wind currently produces less than
1% of the nation’s power.
Source: Energy Information Agency

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US Wind Energy
U.S. Capacity
Wind Energy Capacity

10000

8000

6000
MW
4000

2000

0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

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Installed Wind Turbines

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Wind Power Advantages

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Advantages of Wind Power
 Environmental
 Economic Development
 Fuel Diversity & Conservation
 Cost Stability

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Environmental Benefits
 No air pollution
 No greenhouse gasses
 Does not pollute water with mercury
 No water needed for operations

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Economic Development Benefits
 Expanding Wind Power development
brings jobs to rural communities
 Increased tax revenue
 Purchase of goods & services

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Economic Development Example

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Fuel Diversity Benefits
 Domestic energy source
 Inexhaustible supply
 Small, dispersed design
 reduces supply risk

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Cost Stability Benefits
 Flat-rate pricing
 hedge against fuel price volatility risk
 Wind electricity is inflation-proof

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Wind Power Design

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Power in the Wind (W/m2)

= 1/2 x air density x swept rotor area x (wind speed)3

 A V3

Density = P/(RxT)
P - pressure (Pa)
R - specific gas constant (287 J/kgK) Area =  r2 Instantaneous Speed
T - air temperature (K) (not mean speed)
kg/m3 m2 m/s

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Wind Energy Natural Characteristics
 Wind Speed
 Wind energy increases with the cube of the wind speed
 10% increase in wind speed translates into 30% more
electricity
 2X the wind speed translates into 8X the electricity

 Height
 Wind energy increases with height to the 1/7 power
 2X the height translates into 10.4% more electricity

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Wind Energy Natural Characteristics
 Air density
 Wind energy increases proportionally with air density
 Humid climates have greater air density than dry climates
 Lower elevations have greater air density than higher
elevations
 Wind energy in Denver about 6% less than at sea level

 Blade swept area

 Wind energy increases proportionally with swept area of the
blades
 Blades are shaped like airplane wings
 10% increase in swept diameter translates into 21% greater
swept area
 Longest blades up to 413 feet in diameter
 Resulting in 600 foot total height

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Betz Limit
 Theoretical maximum energy extraction
from wind = 16/27 = 59.3%
 Undisturbed wind velocity reduced by 1/3
 Albert Betz (1928)

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How Big is a 2.0 MW Wind Turbine?

This picture shows a Vestas

V-80 2.0-MW wind turbine
superimposed on a Boeing
747 JUMBO JET

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Wind Turbine Power Curve
2500

Vestas V80 2 MW Wind Turbine

2000

KW 1500

1000

500

0
10 20 30 40 50
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MPH
Recent Capacity Enhancements
2006
5 MW
600’

2003
1.8 MW
2000 350’
850 kW
265’

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Nacelle Components 10

16
17
12
12
1. Hub controller 11. Blade bearing
2. Pitch cylinder 12. Blade
3. Main shaft 13. Rotor lock system
4. Oil cooler 14. Hydraulic unit
5. Gearbox 15. Machine foundation
6. Top Controller 16. Yaw gears
7. Parking Break 17. Generator
8. Service crane 18. Ultra-sonic sensors
9. Transformer 19. Meteorological gauges 38

10. Blade Hub

Turbines Constantly Improving
 Larger turbines
 Specialized blade design
 Power electronics
 Computer modeling
 produces more efficient design
 Manufacturing improvements

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Improving Reliability
 Drastic improvements since mid-80’s
 Manufacturers report availability data of
over 95%

100
% Available

80
60
40
20
0
1981 '83 '85 '90 '98 Year
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Wind Project Siting

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Siting a Wind Farm
 Winds
 Minimum class 4 desired for utility-scale wind farm (>7
m/s at hub height)
 Transmission
 Distance, voltage excess capacity
 Permit approval
 Land-use compatibility
 Public acceptance
 Visual, noise, and bird impacts are biggest concern
 Land area
 Economies of scale in construction
 Number of landowners

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Site selection consideration

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1. High annual average wind speed
2. Availability of anemometry data
3. Availability of wind
4. Wind structure at the proposed site
5. Altitude of the propsed site
6. Terrain and its aero dynamic
7. Local ecology
8. Distance to road and railway
9. Nature of ground
10. Favourable land cost
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Wind energy conversion system

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Wind mill
 A windmill is a machine that converts the energy of
wind into rotational energy by means of vanes
called sails or blades. The reason for the name
"windmill" is that the devices originally were
developed for milling grain for food production; the
name stuck when in the course of history, windmill
machinery was adapted to supply power for many
industrial and agricultural needs other than milling.
The majority of modern windmills take the form
of wind turbines used to generate electricity,
or windpumps used to pump water, either for land
drainage or to extract groundwater. 47
Wind Disadvantages

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Market Barriers
 Siting
 Avian
 Noise
 Aesthetics
 Intermittent source of power
 Transmission constraints
 Operational characteristics different from
conventional fuel sources
 Financing

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Wind Energy and the Grid
 Pros
 Small project size
 Short/flexible development time
 Dispatchability
 Cons
 Generally remote location
 Grid connectivity -- lack of transmission capability
 Intermittent output
 Only When the wind blows (night? Day?)
 Low capacity factor
 Predicting the wind -- we’re getting better 50
Birds - A Serious Obstacle

 Birds of Prey (hawks, owls, golden eagles) in jeopardy

 Altamont Pass – News Update
 shut down all the turbines for at least two months each winter
 eliminate the 100 most lethal turbines
 Replace all before permits expire in 13 years

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Wind – Characteristics & Consequences
 Remote location and low capacity factor
 Higher transmission investment per unit output
 Small project size and quick development
time
 Planning mismatch with transmission investment
 Intermittent output
 Higher system operating costs if systems and
protocols not designed properly

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Balancing Supply & Demand
4500

Gas
4000

Gas/Hydro
3500

Base Load – Coal

3000

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Energy Delivery
Lake Benton II Storm Lake
Lake Benton & Storm Lake Power
Combined
February 24, 2002
200000

180000

160000

140000

120000
(kW)

100000

80000

60000

40000

20000

0
10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

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0:00

1:00

2:00

3:00

4:00

5:00

6:00

7:00

8:00

9:00

(HH:MM)
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Energy Delivery
Lake Benton II Storm Lake
Lake Benton & Storm Lake Power
Combined
July 7, 2003
180000

160000

140000

120000

100000
(kW)

80000

60000

40000

20000

0
10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

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0:00

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9:00

(HH:MM)
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Future Trends

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Expectations for Future Growth

 20,000 total turbines installed by 2010

 6% of electricity supply by 2020

100,000 MW of wind power installed

by 2020

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Future Cost Reductions
 Financing Strategies
 Manufacturing
Economy of Scale
 Better Sites and
“Tuning” Turbines for
Site Conditions
 Technology
Improvements

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Future Tech Developments
 Application Specific Turbines
 Offshore
 Limited land/resource areas
 Transportation or construction limitations
 Low wind resource
 Cold climates

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The Future of Wind - Offshore
•1.5 - 6 MW per turbine
•60-120 m hub height
•5 km from shore, 30 m
deep ideal
•Gravity foundation, pole, or
tripod formation
•Shaft can act as artificial
reef
•Drawbacks- T&D losses
(underground cables lead to
shore) and visual eye sore

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Wind Energy Storage
 Pumped hydroelectric
 Georgetown facility – Completed 1967
 Two reservoirs separated by 1000 vertical feet
 Pump water uphill at night or when wind energy production exceeds
demand
 Flow water downhill through hydroelectric turbines during the day or
when wind energy production is less than demand
 About 70 - 80% round trip efficiency
 Raises cost of wind energy by 25%
 Difficult to find, obtain government approval and build new facilities
 Compressed Air Energy Storage
 Using wind power to compress air in underground storage caverns
 Salt domes, empty natural gas reservoirs
 Costly, inefficient
 Hydrogen storage
 Use wind power to electrolyze water into hydrogen
 Store hydrogen for use later in fuel cells
 50% losses in energy from wind to hydrogen and hydrogen to electricity
 25% round trip efficiency
 Raises cost of wind energy by 4X 61